The Other McCain

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Fear and Loathing in the Lowcountry UPDATE: Trail Hiker Wins GOP Runoff

Posted on | April 2, 2013 | 71 Comments

UPDATE 11:15 p.m. ET: Welcome, Instapundit readers! As you surely know by now, 1st District GOP voters chose Mark Sanford by a 57-43 margin over Curtis Bostic. A few quick reactions from my Twitter account:

There be plenty of time to re-hash everything tomorrow, but for now: Please hit the tip jar to help pay for this trip.

UPDATE 7:20 p.m. ET: Liveblogging the special election results.

“I had come up to New Hampshire to write a long thing on the McGovern campaign — but after twelve hours in Manchester I hadn’t seen much to indicate that it actually existed, and I was beginning to wonder what the fuck I was going to write about for that issue. . . .
“[I]n mid-February of 1972 there were no visible signs, in New Hampshire, that the citizenry was about to rise up and drive the swine from the temple. Beyond that, it was absolutely clear — according to the Wizards, Gurus, and Gentlemen Journalists in Washington — that Big Ed Muskie, the Man from Maine, had the Democratic nomination so deep in the bag that it was hardly worth arguing about.
“Nobody argued with the things McGovern said. He was right, of course — but nobody took him very seriously, either . . .”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Curtis Bostic’s congressional campaign is not exactly an uprising by the citizenry determined to “drive the swine from the temple.” No sane person thinks of South Carolina politics as a temple, and these folks prefer their swine hickory-smoked, slow-cooked, and slathered in vinegar-based sauce.

All the Wizards, Gurus and Gentlemen Journalists expect GOP voters in the 1st District to choose Mark Sanford as their nominee in today’s runoff election because, apparently, adultery is more popular than Jesus in South Carolina.

Speaking of Gentleman Journalists, National Review‘s Jim Geraghty recently paid a visit to Hilton Head:

As one Beaufort County resident put it to me, “I’m hearing folks say, ‘My pastor says I should vote for [Bostic]'”

If the counsel of clergy is heeded, the headline on a Bostic victory will be Miracle Upset, but polls indicate that Christianity itself is now viewed as a liability by South Carolina Republicans, unless it is the cheap-grace gospel wherein Mark Sanford’s 2009 embarrassment is shrugged off as something inconsequential that only the Liberal Media Elite care about. There may still be Republicans who take “family values” seriously, but they are neither fashionable nor influential, and none of the Wizards and Gurus think that the anti-adultery vote will amount to a majority in today’s GOP runoff.

The big news today is that Stephen Colbert will host fundraisers for his sister, the Democrat who already enjoys a vast advantage in campaign cash and who can rely on the united efforts of the Democrat Party to win the May 7 special election.

Meanwhile, for the past week or so, various True Conservatives have been trying to convince people that it is a terrible scandal that Ali Akbar was hired to help promote the candidacy of a Marine Corps veteran and homeschooling father of five. It’s even being treated as semi-scandalous that I’m down here providing my customary Neutral Objective Journalism about the campaign. Of course, Hunter S. Thompson committed more felonies before breakfast every day than have ever been alleged against Ali, and I’ve been up-front about my opinion ever since my first March 20 post about this race, “S.C. Primary: Will Tea Party Rally Behind Curtis Bostic Against Mark Sanford?”

Last night, I found myself in a deep discussion with our hostess here — a Christian homeschooling mother of seven — who was mystified by the hatred against Ali. My best explanation is that Ali’s enemies are like Ferris Bueller’s sister:

“Why should he get to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Why should everything work out for him? What makes him so goddamn special?”

It is not Ali’s admitted failures, but his successes, that make him the object of so much wrathful resentment. At a time when the GOP is in a condition of demoralized disarray, there is no shortage of idle and disgruntled Republicans who have nothing better to do than to recycle the same old stories, embellished with new allegations, and I’d be happy to ignore it all, if it didn’t have such a harmfully distracting effect.

Some of my blogger friends seem to have forgotten that it was Ali who, as a consultant to the campaign that elected Scott Brown to the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, ensured that bloggers like myself, Da Tech Guy, Ace of Spades and Pamela Geller had prime seating at the victory party that January 2010 night in Boston. Pudding, anyone?

Is there a strain of Charles Johnson-ism in all this? Are there people trying to set themselves up as Supreme Arbiters of who is and is not acceptable inside the Big Tent? And, if so, why are they simultaneously indignant about having Ali Akbar work as a digital strategist, but blithely indifferent to having Mark Sanford become the “face” of the Republican Party?

Some would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

Having done all in my power to make peace among friends, I find myself in a familiar place: No one asks for my advice, and when I volunteer advice, I’m ignored. People who claim to like and trust me refuse to listen to me, and instead heed the counsel of those who notoriously hate me.

There is no point trying to blame anyone for this state of affairs. It is what it is, and merely explaining it won’t fix it, but the search for scapegoats — the effort to externalize blame by pointing the finger at our enemies as the cause of woe — is not usually a portent of future success. Certainly, my own personal shortcomings explain my failures better than do any injustices I’ve suffered, and I just wish some of my friends could see their situations in the same light, rather than encouraging vindictive dogpile attacks on their chosen enemies — who also just so happen to be my friends.

No point in blame, no hope for redemption, and no rest for the weary this side of the grave. Please hit the tip jar to pay for this bizarre exercise in Fear and Loathing.

 

 

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Category: Fear. Loathing., South Carolina

Comments

71 Responses to “Fear and Loathing in the Lowcountry UPDATE: Trail Hiker Wins GOP Runoff”

  1. benning
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:56 am

    I’m gonna guess that SC Repubs went with the devil they knew – name recognition, as it were – and maybe they thought Sanford was a good Gubner. Up until he lost his mind and went “hiking”. *shrug*

    I’m just glad our odd candidate’s moment was in the last gubernatorial election. FLA’s Gubner ain’t my favorite, but at least we did manage to stave off Alex Sink. LOL

  2. Quartermaster
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 7:59 am

    Yeah, yeah, yeah! I suppose that’s why the establishment is supporting him. Give me a break and give your fantasies a rest. The man is an adulterer who abanadoned his post to chase a skirt not his wife.

    The GOP is getting to be as depraved as the Dims and that’s what you are supporting. The GOP is pathetic.

  3. Quartermaster
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:01 am

    You’re pathetic.You may not be “Bible thumping hypocrites,” but you are hypocrites. If they were truly angry with Sanford he would not have won. Period.

    The one that is projecting here is you. You’re pathetic.

  4. Sandford Wins SC Special Election Primary | The Lonely Conservative
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 9:34 am

    […] Mark Sanford won the primary runoff against Curtis Bostic in the SC1 special election 57-43. The Other McCain noted that adultery is now more popular with South Carolina Republicans than Jesus. Great. Now the […]

  5. earthtone55
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 9:46 am

    As an SC resident, I have a few observations.

    -Yes, its silly, but barbeque *IS* a source of regional pride here (and bluntly, we can use all we get). Even though store-bought condiment mustard has vinegar in it, the unique thing about SC lowcountry BBQ is the distinctive mustard color and flavor, not the vinegar.

    -On Sanford, people outside the State of SC know him mostly for his adultery and subsequent bizarre public behavior. But prior to that, *inside* SC he was highly popular as governor, actually more so than his protoge and media darling, the current governor Nikki Haley.

    This popularity was probably one of the bigger reasons SC residents were so disappointed in him. There was credible talk of a Sanford Presidential run, literally right up until the point where he self-destructed. So I think its partly a case of the greater the man, the greater the fall.

    I understand the need to make pithy “tweets”, but if you want to reference Jesus, I think the Christian value at play here is “forgiveness”. As in “forgiveness” is more popular within the SC GOP than “adultery”. (Also see “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”). Its not as if Sanford is exactly the first politician to get caught cheating on his wife.

    As already mentioned, from his long history of service, the residents of SC-1 know quite well what they’d getting with Sanford, and even if any national political ambitions have been squelched, they’re probably correct that he’ll still be a good advocate for them in the SC State house.

  6. McCain Shoeleathering His Way Through South Carolina | Daily Pundit
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:08 am

    […] UPDATE: Fear and Loathing in the Lowcountry UPDATE: Trail Hiker Wins GOP Runoff : The Other McCain […]

  7. sheryl
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 11:18 am

    I don’t watch the view….unfortunately my mother does and I am with her. Whoopi and Babs are now going on about Mark Sanford…bible thumping. I guess we now where this is going already with the media….They never ask Hillary why she prefers doormat status and stays with a man that cheats on her.

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 12:28 pm

    I do hope Sanford beats Busch and I also hope Sanford does not cause collateral damage to other conservatives beyond this house seat.

  9. OldmanRick
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 2:06 pm

    Here’s hoping you are correct. We don’t need another Al Franken in skirts.

  10. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 2:54 pm

    Mustard color?

    Over the past several decades, I’ve eaten Bar-B-Q in every Southern state, and in northern and southern parts of every Southern state, and I’ve never once seen yellow Bar-B-Q sauce.

    Where, exactly is this mysterious, yellow Bar-B-Q sauce?

  11. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 2:56 pm

    Proof of that is all the “rumors” about Anthony Weiner getting back into politics.

  12. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 2:57 pm

    Hmm, that could be read as addressed to you, personally. Poor word choice on my part. It’s addressed at the general class of pro aborts.

  13. K-Bob
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

    Wine or Bourbon make good substitutes for vinegar. But then, that would “westen” it up a little.

  14. richard mcenroe
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 3:31 pm

    South Carolina hasn’t made a smart move since they bombarded Ft. Sumter.

  15. richard mcenroe
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 3:33 pm

    And remember, we have to leave God in Church and out of politics if we ever want to win another election! Did you get that one, too?

  16. ThePaganTemple
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 3:35 pm

    That 11:15 update is a fucking disgrace.

  17. westie
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 3:41 pm

    Nobody is staying home, Sanford is a proven better Conservative than 90% of the cretins that inhabit the Repub Party. Stacy McCain needs to stay out of SC politics as all he has done is raised the stakes in Sanford losing against the Rat candidate!

  18. WarEagle82
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:53 pm

    Yes, the good folks of South Carolina are getting a certified flake who ran off and left his wife and lied to the people of South Carolina for years.

    You weren’t sure what you got the first go around. Why are you so sure you know now?

  19. Quartermaster
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 8:56 pm

    Yadda, yadda, yadda. SC GOP politics has become a cesspool and Sanford’s victory is pretty much all teh evidence one needs.

    Both the Dims and GOP have forced congressional elections onto teh national stage. Neither party cares a whit about the constitution, and that includes Sanford. If Congress would cease its lawless behavior than RSM and others would not be down in SC doing the sort of things they’ve been doing.

    As for people staying home, your whistling past the graveyard. Sanford may be better in relative terms, but that’s as far as it goes. He’s just part of the evil picture of the stupid party. Were I a SC resident, I’d stay home and allow your type to stumble all over themselves while you burn the house down. Sanford is one of the major examples why teh GOP needs to die a horrible death. It certainly isn’t much of an opposition party.

  20. Quartermaster
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 9:00 pm

    We “outsiders” are well aware of what Sanford used to be. We also know what he made of himself, adulterer. His girlfriend is also an adulterer. If you want forgiveness, you must first abandon your sin. He not only has not done so, he is parading it and saying he’s a changed man. His claim is utterly risible and not worth the breath it takes to make it.

  21. Quartermaster
    April 3rd, 2013 @ 9:05 pm

    And Creole, the CG, was from Lousyana and was ordered to reduce Sumter, so it wasn’t really SC’s fault.